Denver Art Museum sells Roman statue for $930,000 at Sotheby's

A Roman statue of a senator or noble, dating back approximately 1,800 years, was sold at Sotheby's in London for about $930,000. The sculpture, part of the Denver Art Museum's collection since 1965, was acquired by a London art dealer who plans to resell it quickly. Proceeds will fund new acquisitions. The museum, a non-profit partly funded by local taxes, is deaccessioning multiple works, including ancient Egyptian art later this year. This practice is common among American museums facing reduced private funding. Similar sales include the Toledo Museum of Art's auction of 140 Egyptian and Roman pieces, which drew criticism from Egypt and Cyprus, and the Delaware Art Museum's failed sale of William Holman Hunt's 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil,' which fetched only $5 million against a $13 million estimate.